Elliott welcomes Alps Electric's plans to boost shareholder returns

TOKYO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Japan’s Alps Electric Co said it would take steps to boost shareholders returns after it completes a planned acquisition of affiliate Alpine Electronics Inc, in a move welcomed by asset manager Elliott Management.

The method would include buying back its own shares worth about 40 billion yen ($354 million), Alps said in a statement on Monday. It also said it planned total shareholder returns of 50 percent of group net profit in the three years starting in the 2019 business year, and 30 percent thereafter.

Shares in Alps Electric rose as much as 7.8 percent after the announcement and were trading up 5.5 percent by mid-morning.

In an email, Elliott said the group welcomed the decision.

“Elliott welcomes the announcement by Alps of enhanced parameters for its shareholder-returns program. We commend Alps’ management on this innovative shareholder-value-driven approach to increasing returns for all stakeholders in the merged Alps/Alpine business.” ($1 = 113.0200 yen) (Reporting by Junko Fujita Editing by Chang-Ran Kim)